Edward Everett, in his Address, did not forget to mention the colored patriot, and thus to secure for his act perpetual record. Such an honor far exceeds that of any sculptured stone. Pointing to the obelisk, Mr. Everett said: mention "It commemorates no individual man or State. It Edward Everett's stands, indeed, on the soil of Massachusetts, where the honorable battle was fought; but there it stands equally for Con- of Peter necticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, and the Salem. younger sisters of the New-England family, Vermont and Maine, whose troops shared with ours the dangers and honors of the day. It stands for Prescott and Warren, but not less for Putnam and Stark and Greene. No name adorns the shaft; but ages hence, though our alphabets may become as obscure as those which cover the monuments of Nineveh and Babylon, its uninscribed surface (on which monarchs might be proud to engrave their titles) will perpetuate the memory of the 17th of June. It is the monument of the day of the event of the battle of Bunker Hill; of all the brave men who shared its perils, — alike of Prescott and Putnam and Warren, the chiefs of the day, and the colored man, Salem, who is reported to have shot the gallant Pitcairn, as he mounted the parapet. Cold as the clods on which it rests, still as the silent heavens to which it soars, it is yet vocal, eloquent, in their undivided praise." Orations and Speeches, vol. iii. p. 529. Another colored soldier, who participated in the battle of Bunker Hill, is favorably noticed in a petition to the General Court, signed by some of the principal officers, less than six months after the event. It is printed from the original manuscript in our State Archives. Major "To the Honorable General Court of the Massachusetts Bay. "The subscribers beg leave to report to your Honorable House (which we do in justice to the character of so brave a man), that, under our own observation, we declare that a negro man called Salem Poor, of Col. Frye's regiment, Capt. Ames' company, in the late battle at Charlestown, behaved like an experienced officer, as well as an excellent soldier. To set forth particulars of his conduct would be tedious. We would only beg leave to say, in the person of this said negro centres a brave and gallant soldier. The reward due to so great and distinguished a character, we submit to the Congress. "JONA. BREWER, Col. 66 CAMBRIDGE, Dec. 5, 1775. ELIPHALET BODWELL, Sgt. "In Council, Dec. 21, 1775.- Read, and sent down. (Massachusetts Archives, vol. clxxx. p. 241.) Here I cannot forbear calling attention to the opinion of one who was a brave soldier, not only in this battle, but from the commencement to the close of the Revolution; and whose name continues to be honored in his children and his children's children in our own city. "Samuel Lawrence was born in Groton, April 24, 1754; and was, therefore, in his early manhood when our Revolutionary struggle commenced. In common with all the hardy, intelligent, liberty-loving yeomanry of New England, he espoused the cause of the Colonies, and devoted himself Lawrence. to it with a courage that never failed, a constancy that Major never faltered, till his country had passed 'from impending servitude to acknowledged independence.' At work in the field, ploughing his paternal acres, when the news of the attack upon Concord reached Groton, he immediately unloosed a horse from his team, and, mounting, rode rapidly through Groton and some of the adjoining towns, spreading the alarm, and summoning the militia to assemble. He returned in season to join his own company at the church at Groton, at twelve o'clock; where, after prayer offered by the pastor of the town, they started for Concord, helped to swell that impetuous tide of resistance which drove back the invaders, and slept that night on Cambridge Common, after a forced march of thirty miles, and hot skirmishes. with the retreating foe. From that time to the peace of 1783, he was 'a soldier of the Revolution'; and, with the exception of one or two brief visits to his family and friends at Groton, he was in actual service throughout the whole war. He rose to the rank of major, and for a considerable period was attached to Gen. Sullivan's staff as adjutant; an office for which his powerful lungs and sonorous voice, which could be heard throughout a long line of troops, peculiarly fitted him. He was in many of the severest battles of the Revolution. "At Bunker Hill, where he was slightly wounded, his coat and hat were pierced with the balls of the enemy, and were preserved in the family for many years. At one time he commanded a company whose rank and file were all negroes, of whose courage, military discipline, and fidelity, he always spoke with respect. On one occasion, being out reconnoitring with this company, he got so far in advance of his command, that he was surrounded, and on the point of being made prisoner by the enemy. The men, soon discovering his peril, rushed to his rescue, and fought with the most determined bravery till that rescue was effectually secured. He never forgot this circum George stance, and ever after took especial pains to show kindness and hospitality to any individual of the colored race who came near his dwelling." - Memoir of William Lawrence, by Rev. S. K. Lothrop, D.D., pp. 8, 9. A single passage from Mr. Bancroft's History will give a succinct and clear account of the condition of the army, in respect to colored soldiers, at the time of the battle of Bunker Hill: "Nor should history forget to record, that as in the army at Cambridge, so also in this gallant band, the free negroes of the Colony had their representatives. For the right of free negroes to bear arms in the public defence was, at that day, as little disputed in New England as their other rights. They took their place, not in a separate corps, but in the ranks with the white man; and their names may be read on the pension-rolls of the country, side by side with those of other soldiers of the Revolution.". Bancroft's Hist. of the U. S., vol. vii. p. 421. At the commencement of the war, it appears to have been customary for the free negroes to be enrolled with white citizens in the militia. In many instances, slaves also stood in the ranks with freemen. The inconsistency, however, in using as soldiers, in an army raised for establishing National Liberty, those who were held in bondage, was too gross for the practice long to continue. This was virtually acknowledged in a Resolution which was adopted before the first great battle had been fought. On the 20th of May, the Committee of Safety Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Committee, as the contest now between Great Britain and the Colonies of Safety. respects the liberties and privileges of the latter, which Committee the Colonies are determined to maintain, that the admission. of any persons, as Soldiers, into the Army now raising, but only such as are Freemen, will be inconsistent with the principles that are to be supported, and reflect dishonor on this Colony; and that no Slaves be admitted into this army upon any consideration whatever." Force's American Archives, Fourth Series, vol. ii. p. 762. The celebrated divine, the Rev. Dr. Hopkins of Newport, R. I., soon after the commencement of hostilities, published a "Dialogue concerning the Slavery of the Africans," which he dedicated to "The Honorable Continental Congress." As this tract was reissued in New York by the Manumission Society, of which Robert R. Livingston, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay were active members, and a copy of it sent, by their direction, to each member of Congress, the views it contains are quite important as illustrating the sentiment of some of the ablest men of that time. The following extract is from a note to the "Dialogue: " "God is so ordering it in his providence, that it seems Rev. Dr. absolutely necessary something should speedily be done Hopkins. with respect to the slaves among us, in order to our safety, and to prevent their turning against us in our present. struggle, in order to get their liberty. Our oppressors have planned to gain the blacks, and induce them to take up arms against us, by promising them liberty on this condition; and this plan they are prosecuting to the utmost of their power, by which means they have persuaded numbers to join them. And should we attempt to restrain them by force and severity, keeping a strict guard over them, and |